Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns to Michael Berrer of Germany in their first-round tennis match at the China Open in Beijing, China, yesterday.

Photo: EPA

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei gave former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki a scare before running out of steam to lose in three sets at the China Open in Beijing yesterday.

Wozniacki, currently ranked 11th in the world, lost the first set 6-7 (5/7) before bouncing back to take the second 7-6 (7/3). The Dane then took complete control to claim the deciding set without losing a game.

It was a tame end to what had been a hard-fought second-round contest stretching over 2 hours, 48 minutes.

Over the match as a whole, Hsieh’s serve could have been better, with eight double faults hampering her performance. Wozniacki by contrast only served three, and fired in an ace to boot, something Hsieh could not manage.

At least the Kaohsiung-born world No. 38 put in a better performance than the last time the pair met, when Wozniacki thrashed Hsieh 6-1, 6-1 on clay in Bad Gastein, Austria, in 2008.

Asia’s top women’s player, who needs a strong showing this week to qualify for the WTA Championships in Istanbul later this month, won the match convincingly at a packed National Tennis Stadium 6-1, 6-2.

It was last year’s French Open champion’s first win against Petrova, who triumphed at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Saturday, in seven attempts.

“That’s the charm in playing tennis. Every day, you can challenge yourself,” Li said. “You are defeated consecutively, but it doesn’t mean you are defeated by her all the time. This is sport. You never know what’s going to happen.”

“I’m very much glad to see that I’m still making progress in this match,” she added.

Li, 30, who has never won her home tournament, played at a frenetic pace throughout, breaking her opponent’s serve twice in the first set and three times in the second.

She was broken just once — in the sixth game of the second set, which lasted more than 13 minutes — and served consistently better than Petrova, hitting five aces to her opponent’s one.

Li, ranked eighth in the world and seeded seventh in Beijing, will play compatriot Peng Shuai in the third round of the tournament — the fourth and final compulsory event of the women’s calendar.

Asia’s only Grand Slam winner is in eighth position in the race to compete at the US$4.9 million end-of-season Championships, which feature the year’s top eight players.

In the men’s tournament, an out of sorts world No. 2 Novak Djokovic extended his unbeaten record at the China Open, but needed three sets to defeat qualifier Michael Berrer of Germany.

The Serb, playing his first match since losing to Andy Murray in the US Open final last month, progressed to the second round with a 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 victory, but it was a performance that was far from impressive.